Mansion by the Lake (2003)

October 6, 2003

FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW; To the Dacha Born, in Sri Lanka

By ELVIS MITCHELL

Published: October 6, 2003

An opening credit informs us that the Sri Lankan director Lester James Peries's new film, ''Mansion by the Lake,'' which is having its premiere as part of the New York Film Festival, was adapted from ''The Cheery Orchard.'' This misspelling more than summarizes the film; ''Mansion by the Lake'' is a bland, pitted reconfiguring of Chekhov.

The declamatory nature of the dialogue doesn't add texture, nor does what is some of the strangest dubbing in movie history.

Not only is there a slight but perceptible delay between the parting of lips and the sound of dialogue, but also almost each line from the actresses starts with a sharp intake of breath and ends with a girlish giggle, as if the same person were doing the voice-over for all of the women.

And the footfalls often sound like Savion Glover had sprinkled sand over a hardwood surface, all the better for his tap shoes to bring on the noise.

It's not long before the percussive soundtrack takes its toll; after a character climbing the stairs sounds like a leather mallet being pounded into a wall, one wonders if the sound technicians were intentionally sabotaging the film.

Mr. Peries is so maladroit at combining politics and melodrama that he doesn't need any help in that regard.

In transplanting the orchard to Sri Lanka, he can't find a way to use irony to denote a shift in the social order in this drama about a well-born Sri Lankan family returning to a familial home after a long absence.

Chekhov's patrician characters spoke condescendingly about welcoming the change that was ending their way of life, though their well-raised narcissism blinded them to it.

The family in ''Mansion by the Lake'' is only blinded by happy memories of the large parcel of land and sumptuous house they grew up in.

After years away, Sujatha (Malini Fonseka) and her brother Gunapala (Sanath Guntileke) arrive and harmonize through a childhood song. That they can't tell that the gloom around the place is in a much heavier key than the children's ditty they crooned doesn't strike a big enough chord.

Sujatha and her daughter, Aruni (Paboda Sandeepani), have spent years in London. The Sri Lankan estate is tied mostly to tragedy. Sujatha saw her son drown there; he makes a ghostly reappearance in the lake where he died. The place is about to be taken over by the bank, a fact that seems to surprise all, including Sita (Vasanthi Chaturani), the sister who stayed behind to care for the place while life -- and apparently the mortgage -- went untended. The wealthy Lucas (Ravindra Randeniya), who grew up as part of a poor laborer family in the household, is asked to help with financial matters.

Anyone who knows ''The Cheery Orchard'' -- pardon me, ''The Cherry Orchard'' -- will not be shocked by his machinations or motives in the last act.

The motives of the filmmaker, however, are a different matter. He seeks to use Chekhovian drama to explore the caste system; Mr. Peries understands that the rigidity of the caste system, too, is moribund or should be, yet his ambition is sacrificed to obviousness.

Aruni's former tutor, Kirthi Bandara (Senaka Wijesinghe), turns up as a firebrand and delivers homilies about upper-class oppression, morbidly intoning ''I come from the dispossessed'' and ''This soil is stained with sweat and blood.'' Besides weighing things down with more unwieldy slop, he seems to indicate that Aruni clearly needed a tutor's help if he was forced to be so heavy-handed. (That point is emphasized when Aruni can't remember him even though she had a crush on him earlier.)

When the banality of the sentiments expressed finally becomes more oppressive than the ghosts or the attempts to banish the thoughtlessness of the caste system, one thought rings out: ''Mansion by the Lake'' may require the kind of vacation the title suggests.

MANSION BY THE LAKE

Written (in Sinhalese, with English subtitles) and directed by Lester James Peries; director of photography, K. A. Dharmasena; edited by Gladwin Fernando; art director, Mani Mendis; produced by Chandran Rutnam and Asoka Perera. Running time: 106 minutes. This film is not rated. Shown tonight at 6 and tomorrow night at 9:15 at Alice Tully Hall, at Lincoln Center, 165 West 65th Street, Manhattan, as part of the 41st New York Film Festival.